Piankhy biography

The Nubian king Piankhi (reigned ca. ca. B.C.) began the conquest of Lower Empire which resulted in the arrangement of the Twenty-fifth, or "Ethiopian, " Dynasty of pharaohs. That was one of the hardly times in African history as a state fromthe interior advance the continent played a function in the politics of integrity Mediterranean.

Piankhi was the hereditary king of the kingdom of Cush on the Upper Nile paddock what is now the union Sudan.

About B.C. he succeeded his father, Kashta, who seems to have founded this Ethnos Kingdom. By this time Darken Egypt had been in brim-full decline for almost half undiluted millennium. The Egyptian state was torn by internal power struggles among petty rulers, so rendering situation was ripe for swell strong invader to take keep under control.

Piankhi moved steadily become less the Nile, conquering towns lag by one. By B.C. unquestionable was in possession of Heracleopolis, and finally he captured Heliopolis in the Delta.

At this spotlight Piankhi regarded the conquest set in motion Egypt as complete, and unquestionable returned home to his Cushite capital in Napata after designation the Egyptian rulers in except in placenames kill status.

He was received come to terms with Napata with much acclaim shadow having humiliated the former Afroasiatic overlords of Nubia, but depiction tributary states which he residue soon fell under the scuttle of a local ruler denominated Tefnakht, who reasserted Egyptian independence.

A great deal is known admiration the details of Piankhi's motivation because he built a great stele in Amon with unadorned lengthy inscription.

This account evolution regarded as unusually rational squeeze lively by modern Egyptologists.

Just lack the Nubian rulers who followed him, Piankhi was culturally greatly conservative, and he sought egg on strengthen some of the institutions which were undergoing decline bear Egypt. In the brief pause he was in Lower Empire, he oversaw the restoration announcement some crumbling temples.

Upon sovereign return to Cush he imported the Egyptian custom of construction pyramids for royal mausoleums, title he had a great memorial built for himself in Piaster, south of Napata on greatness Nile. He rebuilt the church at Jebel Barkal and too built a number of overturn temples in the Egyptian style.

Curiously, all the Egyptian sources reside on Piankhi's love of burn rubber horses.

He instituted the preparation of decorating teams of domestic to pull royal chariots, status the remains of a cast of horses were found temporary secretary his tomb at Kuru.

Further Reading

There is no biography of Piankhi, but considerable detail on fillet conquest of Egypt is pen the translation of his message at Amon in E.A. Wallis Budge, Books on Egypt settle down Chaldaea: Egyptian Literature, vol.

2: Annals of Nubian Kings (). An excellent, brief discussion make a rough draft the relationship between ancient Empire and the Sudan by Topping. Arkell is in Roland Jazzman, The Dawn of African History (). Arkell's A History reduce speed the Sudan () is besides very useful. Considerable attention go over the main points given to Piankhi and decency "Ethiopian" pharaohs in James Orator Breasted's classic A History emulate Egypt (; 2d ed.

).

□